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The Senate has dropped plans for an 18-month extension of the surface transportation authorization in favor of a six-month extension. The half-year extension will allow lawmakers to draft a $500 billion highway-and-transit bill. The pressure to create jobs in transportation may have swayed the Senate's decision as the nation approaches a 10% unemployment rate.

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Republican opposition to a six-month extension of the current transportation bill has killed the plan in the Senate. Instead, lawmakers will vote on a stopgap spending measure for the highway authorization bill by the end of the week. The current bill expires Saturday, and the stopgap measure would extend funding through Dec. 18.

Dragados USA and MCM have made an unsolicited offer to roll several Miami-Dade transportation proposals into a single project. The offer, under consideration by the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, would include major overhauls of downtown roadways and toll plazas. City officials said the plan would likely cost around $500 million, though others speculated the final price tag would be closer to $1 billion.

The Senate has dropped plans for an 18-month extension of the surface transportation authorization in favor of a six-month extension. The half-year extension will allow lawmakers to draft a $500 billion highway-and-transit bill. The pressure to create jobs in transportation may have swayed the Senate's decision as the nation approaches a 10% unemployment rate.

Tax-exempt bonds are an "inefficient" way to raise money for school- and highway-construction programs and cost the U.S. Treasury about $26 billion a year, according to a congressional report. Local authorities can raise money more effectively by using Qualified School Construction Bonds, which bring tax credits, and Build America Bonds that subsidize interest costs, the report says.

Many federally funded construction projects are still on the drawing board, and economists say it's too soon to tell whether the government's $787 billion rescue package will meet its goals. Assessing the stimulus program's effectiveness depends on imagining how badly the economy might have fared without intervention, experts say -- and that's almost impossible. Still, officials hope the program's impact will become clearer in coming months as job-producing infrastructure projects get under way.